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Ferguson and O'Neill satisfied with goalless draw

23/11/2008

Alex Ferguson and Martin O'Neill both said they were satisfied with a draw after drawing a blank with each other at Villa Park yesterday.

The Manchester United boss admitted that his side had missed an opportunity to capitalise on points also dropped by Chelsea and Liverpool earlier in the day.

However, Ferguson believes his side's draw against Villa represented a better result than Liverpool's draw with Fulham or the Blues draw with Newcastle.

"Obviously we haven't taken advantage [of other results], but in context of the difficulties of the three teams we're talking about - Liverpool, Chelsea and ourselves - I think we're the team that's had the best result today," claimed Ferguson.

The United boss praised Villa's work ethic and felt they could break into the top four by the end of the season.

He said: "They really set out to make it difficult for us, but we handled that well. Today has proved that Aston Villa are a much-improved side with a lot of consistency about them, and I really think they could be in the top four."

O'Neill was disappointed Villa had not been awarded a penalty when Nemanja Vidic hauled down Gabriel Agbonlahor but was pleased with his side's overall performance.

He said: "It was a major moment. He had a hold of Gabby throughout the move. I can understand the referee being hesitant about giving the penalty but not about giving the foul.

"I thought it was important to battle very strongly and we did that well. We could have nicked it at the end but we also had moments to endure ourselves. Overall, it was a very hard-fought draw."

The result meant Villa moved above Arsenal while United remain eight points adrift of Chelsea and Liverpool with a game in hand.